Podcast

Each episode opens the secret files of anti-vice investigators to piece together the portrait of a person from the hidden history of prostitution, gambling, and drinking
in Lancaster, Pennsylvania around 1900.

At this time Lancaster was infamous as a “wide open” city for prostitution, gambling, drinking because city officials encouraged and participated in vice. An undercover investigation of vice in 1913 left behind extensive records documenting the personalities and politics of Lancaster’s underground economy. Using these files, this podcast unearths the surprising
variety of people who struggled and sometimes succeeded in vice.

One background note: we recognize that the investigators’ records include
their particular slant on vice and we try to contextualize their assessments.

We recommend starting with the Kennedy Eckert episode.
Otherwise, there is no particular sequence to the Vice Files.